Improvement in boiler-furnaces



G.DPWILUAMSQ Boiler-Furnaces,

No. 135,869 Pa tentedFeb.H,1 873.

Witnesses: Inventor AM PHOTO-LITHOGRAPIIIC 1:0. 1v.x( assamvzls mncsss)Pmrnn'r @Frrcn.

UNIT D STATES CHARLES D. YVILLIAMS, OF ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA.

IMPROVEMENT IN BOILER-FURNACES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 135,869, dated Februaryll, 1873.

To all whom itmay concern;

' Process for Consuming Smoke; anddo hereby declare that the followingis a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had tothe accompanying drawing and to the letters of reference marked thereonmaking a part of this specification.

The nature of my invention consists in the construction of an apparatusfor the decomposition of water or steam for the purpose of generatingoxygen and hydrogen gas to be used in burning and consuming smoke orattenuated carbon of artificial fuels, coals, wood, and all otherkindsoffuels, when usedor found in the fire boxes or places connected withlocomotives, stationary engines, steamboats, and steam fireen gines.

In order to enable others skilled in the art to which my inventionappertains to make and use the same, I will now proceed to set forth howthe device by means of which my invention may be carried out isconstructed, referring to the annexed drawing, in which- Figure 1 is aplan view, and Fig. 2 a longitudinal vertical sectionof a steam-boilerwith fire-box and my device attached. Fig. 3 is an enlarged end view ofone of the gas'genera tors in the fire-box.

A represents the fire box or place. 13 is the door to the fire box'orplace. 0 is the grate or bottom of the fire-box or fire-place. Drepresents a horizontal boiler, the openings in its inner endrepresenting the ends of the tubes for the passage of the heat, &c. E isthe dome of the boiler. a G G are pipes for conveying steam from thedome on the boiler or water from the tank to the gas-generators. a a.are stop-cocks in the pipes G Gfor regulating the admission of steam orwater to the gas-generators in fire-boxes or fire-places. H H are thegas-generators inside of l the fire-box or fireplace, the inner platesof said generators being perforated, asshown in Fig. 2.

The water or'steam is made to pass from the water-tank, if water isused, or from the boiler or from the top or the sides of the dome of theboiler, if steam is used for this purpose, or from any other convenientplace, through the pipes G G, on each side of the tank, dome, or boiler,or other convenient place, and which enters the fire-box or fire-place Aeither through the sides of the fire box or place, or through the bottomor top of the same, as may be deemed necessary, there connecting withthe gasgenerators.

These gasgenerators may be made of iron,

copper, or any other suitable metal, and may be placed on the insides ofthe fire-box, so that the generator-plates will become sufficientl yheated, by means of which the water or steam is decomposed, and theoxygen and hydrogen of which it is composed are thus generated and setfree, and allowed to escape, through the small apertures or perforationsin the plates of which the generator is composed, into the fire box orplace, uniting with and consuming the smoke or attenuated carbon ofwhich the smoke is composed.

Thegas-generators H H may be of any shape, and may consist of one or twoplates, which may be concavo-convex, or one plate concavoconvex and theother plane, or double concavoconvex in form, or double plane 5, and thesteam or water pipes may connect with or enter the space between or atthe edges of the plates, when two plates are used to form the genenator, or may enter the generator at any other convenient point, as thecircumstances of using it may require. The result is that the smoke isburned up and the heat thereof directly appliedto the generation ofsteam in the boiler. By this process or method less fuel is required toproduce a given result, as none of the fuel is allowed to pass off inattenuated carbon or smoke.

It is found that a supply of hydrogen gas, larger than is usually foundin combination with fuels or in the atmosphere from which oxygen isderived to support combustion, is essential to complete combustion. Theanaly sis of water or steam proposed, and claimed to be carried out bythis invention, supplies the requisite amount of hydrogen and oxygen,and thus more nearly complies with the laws of combustion, and adding,therefore, very largely to the heat in the fire-box or fire-place byburning all surplus oxygen and hydrogen not required for the consumptionof the smoke. The amount or quantity of water or steam necessary toemploy or use in generating the oxygen and hydrogen gases desired foruse is regulated by the stop-cocks a a, which are so arranged as to bereadily under the control of the engineer or operator. The best fuelsare those which contain the most carbon and hydrogen and requiring thelargest amount of oxygen for their consumption. In all fuels thus richin these two properties, especially in carbon, a sufficient amount ofatmosphere cannot usually be obtained, except by artificial means, tomake the combustion complete; hencea large percentage is lost in theform of smoke, which is carbon in an attenuated form. This result ismore likely to occur in the absence of a due proportion of hydrogen gasto unite with the oxygen, so as to intensify the heat necessary toconsume the surplus carbon in smoke form.

Another result arises out of this inventionviz., the amount of cold airusually admitted through the fire-grates of the fire box or place willbe very much lessened by supplying oxygen from water or steam instead ofproducing it from the atmosphere, and can therefore become more nearlyregulated and adapted to the wants of combustion, and correspondingexemption from its cooling action upon the boiler, and parallelreduction of steam. Gombustion, being a chemical process, is attended bythe disengagement of heat when performed in the presence of oxygen,hydrogen, and the carbons. The operation is valued for th e forces whichresult therefrom.

Oxygenhas always been held to be a supporter of combustion, whilehydrogen and carbon, burned in it, were called combustibles yet the factis equally true, and well authenticated, that if oxygen-is burned in thepresence of adue proportion of hydrogen, the oxygen will become thecombustible and the hydrogen the supporter of combustion. The action,therefore, is mutual. All combustibles require a certain elevation oftemperature up to the point of ignition, and must be so maintained togive 01f by rapid chemical action the heat necessary to consume all thesmoke or carbon present, and 'to be acted upon. Hence the necessity ofproduein g oxygen and hydrogen gases in the firebox orfire-places, andthat it be applied in the midst of the flame, where the attenuatedcarbon or smoke is found, simply because atoms separated are morepowerfully attracted by supporters of combustion, and the impaction andarrest of motion develop the forces known as heat. The combustible whichunites with the most oxygen in the act of burning will eliminate themost heat, hydrogen being preeminent, as it is shown in burning that itconsumes,-weight for weight, three times as much oxygen as carbon does;hence the intensity of heat from burning these two gases and theirutility in consuming smoke or partially-oxidized fuel, also in form ofsmoke, from all kinds of fuel. This fact becomes the more important, ina commercial sense, because all the hydrocarbons used as fuel, whetherfound in bituminous coal, petroleum oil, shale-oil, and their residuums,require at least one thousand degrees of heat to ignite them. Thisprinciple is especially applicable toth'e burning of anthracite coal, asthat fuel contains oxygen with but very little if any hydrogen.

I do not wish to be understood as limiting or confining my invention tothe fire-boxes and fire-places of locomotives, stationary engines,steamboats, and steam fire-engines, but desire to use it in cook-stoves,and in heating-stoves and furnaces of all kinds.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination, with the boiler D, of the furnace A and theperforated'chambers H H, arranged in the bottom of the furnace above thegrate (J, and communicating with the steam space or dome E by means ofthe pipes G G, substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.

In testimony-that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this20th day of November, 1871.

CHARLES D. WILLIAMS.

Witnesses EDWIN GRIBBLE, EDWARD WALTHER.

